Expectations high Quantity for cassava

A farmer throws harvested cassava root onto a pile in Battambang province in 2011. Heng Chivoan

Expectations high for cassava

Wed, 10 December 2014

Chan Muyhong

Provincial authorities are hoping for a bumper crop for cassava this harvest season, with both cultivation and prices up this year.
In Cambodia’s northwestern provinces, where cassava is most commonly grown, officials are betting on increased demand for the root vegetable from China this harvest season, which runs from December to April. Flood damage too in some areas has been less severe this year, giving officials hope for the harvest.
In Cambodia’s largest cassava producing province of Battambang, officials said cultivation had doubled since last year.
“Cassava cultivation for this new season has increased from 60,000 to 120,000 hectares as farmers have switched from planting corn to cassava, due to low price of corn last year,” said Chhim Vichera, director of Agriculture Department of Battambang province.
Despite the increase of supply, Vichera said he was confident prices would remain stable as there is more interest from the Chinese market.
“We also see more local traders for cassava, and we have become less dependent on neighbouring countries for our product because we have China as a buyer,” said Vichera.
The average yield for cassava is about 25 to 30 tonnes per hectare.
Chhil Chhen, deputy director of Pailin’s provincial Department of Agriculture said cassava cultivation made up 80 per cent of the total 37,000 hectares of cultivation area for agricultural products in Pailin.
“It is a good year for cassava farmers as there is no flooding, so no damage to their harvest,” he said. “The price for the beginning of the harvest is a little higher than last year too. I am optimistic that the price will remain positive as demand from local processing factory has increased,” Chhen added.
According to Chhen, fresh cassava sells for about 290 riel ($0.07) per kilogram while dried cassava is sold for around 670 riel.
Meanwhile, Ouch Savorn, deputy director of Bantey Meanchey’s provincial Department of Agriculture, also noted a presence of more local traders in the province. This increase in competition, he said, would hopefully sustain prices as cultivation had increased by more than 60,000 hectares.
“The government has also encouraged farmers to diversify their plantation,” Savorn added, in order to spread the risk of price fluctuations in one specific product.
Meas Leun, a farmer in Pailin province, said prices for dry cassava were up by about 30 per cent this year.
“As far as I know, there has been higher demand from Vietnam and Thailand as cassava production in their countries has decreased due to flooding. Local traders also increased this year creating price competition in the market,” he said.
However, independent economist Srey Chanthy, cautioned yesterday that while cassava prices were strong at the beginning of the season, he expected them to drop when they reached their peak supply in January and February.
Although China had promised to buy more of the Cambodian produce, trade volume was not endless, Chanthy went on to say.
“Farmers should manage to release their harvest according to the demand, to have better control over price,” he said.

1:32 AM   by Bora ·   0

Here is Cassava exports rise on ASEAN demand

Cassava exports rise on ASEAN demand

DEMAND from Thailand and Vietnam helped to drive up the Kingdom’s cassava exports 88 percent in the first three months of 2011, compared to the same period last year, according to Camcontrol, a division of the Commerce Ministry. Cassava exports exports between January and March totaled 204,618 up 87.7 percent from 108,987 tonnes in 2010. Higher prices also helped to boost export revenues for Cambodia. Revenues for the period equaled US$9.9 million, or about a 143 percent increase from last year’s $4.1 million.

Khuon Savuth, director of Camcontrol, tied the rise to demand from the Kingdom’s larger neighbors and said the  increasing prices are pushing more and more farmers to plant cassava. “The high price of cassava not only improves the living standard of people but also up-holds the national economy".

Chhorn Saroem Company, which exports agricultural products to Thailand, said the increased farming boosted her   cassava shipments in the first three months of the year 50 percent higher than the same period last year. “This year the farmers throughout Paillin province flock to cultivate more cassava than other crops because of high price,” she said.

She added that a tonne fetched 37,000 riels this year compared to 11,000 riel last year.

Khiev Sophet of Paillin, who typically grows corn, said he emphasized cassava this season because of its higher price. He said, even with the increased farming of the crop , “I believe the price should hold for next year.” According to data from Camcontrol, Cambodia’s cassava exports in 2010 totaled just 165,229 tonnes worth $12 million.

1:30 AM   by Bora ·   0

CASSAVA

Cassava

CASSAVA

The cassava is a very useful and important plant in places like South America, Indonesia, and especially in Africa, where my distant basenji cousins live.  When it grows, it makes a bunch of tuber-type roots under the ground, sort of like potatoes.  This is the part of the plant that is eaten the most, but you can also eat the cassava leaves or feed them to your cattle and goats.

The scientific name of the cassava is Manihot esculenta.  There is evidence that people were already eating wild cassava plants in central Brazil all the way back to 10,000 years BCE.  In the 16th century, Portuguese traders brought cassava and maize to Africa, and these plants soon became important crops for the African people to grow.

Cassava is also called manioc.  In South America, it is called yuca, but this is not the same as yucca, which is a different plant.  Cassava likes to grow in places where the weather is hot.  You can start new plants by just cutting the stems of old plants and sticking them in the ground.  It is an easy crop to grow, and it will do okay even if the soil is poor or there is a drought.  Cassava is full of calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins B and C.  In some parts of the world, cassava is the main thing people have to eat, and if they didn't have it, they might starve.

You can make all sorts of things out of cassava, including starch, flour, tapioca, and an alcoholic drink.  Every ethnic group has different traditional dishes they cook with this plant, but usually they are some kind of bread, cake, pudding, or porridge.  Cassava leaves can be pounded and made into a sauce or stew.  Just don't eat cassava raw because it can make you very sick or even kill you!  The reason for this is that cassava has cyanide in it, and if you don't cook it or soak it or ferment it before you eat it, you can get pancreatitis or goiter or partial paralysis.

Cassava porridge

Cassava leaves are used as a medicine to treat headaches, high blood pressure, pain, arthritis, fever, wounds, diarrhea and beri-beri.  The boiled bark can help you get rid of intestinal parasites.  Also you can make cassava into laundry starch or glue.  The tops of the cassava plants can be cut when they are still young and then dried in the sun for a couple of days.  After that, they can be fed to livestock, and they are a good source of protein and roughage.

Nigeria produces the most cassava in the whole world.  Many farmers who used to grow maize now grow cassava because cassava has a bigger yield per acre, and it will grow even if there is not much rain.  Also there is a bunch of research going on to make cassava into an ethanol fuel to burn instead of oil and gas.  And at Ohio State University, scientists are using genetic engineering to grow cassava plants with bigger tubers.  They have made some plants already with roots that are 2.6 times larger than regular cassava roots.  If more, bigger cassavas can be grown, then there will be more food for hungry people.  And that's a good thing.

Cassava heavy cake

3:00 AM   by Bora ·   0

Welcome to CassTech

Welcome to CassTech

CassTech, an unlisted Australian public company, has been farming cassava in Australia since 2008. CassTech’s direct links to cassava farming, however, extend back to Australia’s first commercial cassava enterprise, Australian Cassava Products, which operated from 1979 to the 1986.
In 2008 the Company established a 75 hectare experimental farm at the former Agricultural College site near the town of Clare, in the Burdekin region of North Queensland. This experimental farm was established using cassava stems collected from numerous locations around Australia. In addition to developing and refining cassava growing techniques, the Company developed proprietary farming machinery for the planting and harvesting of cassava.
Identifying a market opportunity for tapioca flour in the gluten-free sector, the Company constructed a pilot scale facility for the production of flour from the cassava roots grown on the farm. Several tonnes of flour were produced and distributed to a wide range of companies involved in the gluten-free industry. The feedback was very encouraging.
To ensure the most desirable attributes of the cassava are available, and to minimise the risk of infestation, the company has 35 varieties/cultivars of cassava, most of which were imported from the world’s leading cassava research facility in South America.
A combination of focused research and professional farming practices has allowed the Company to achieve root yields of at least 70 tonnes per hectare and typically in the range of 80 to 100 tonnes, and do so on a sustainable basis. To put this in perspective, the average root yields in the major cassava growing countries of Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia and Thailand are well under 25 tonnes per hectare and the global average yield is just over 10 tonnes.
The Company currently operates a 10 hectare nursery on which it continues to grow the 35 varieties. The nursery is sufficiently large to provide planting material for a commercial operation of up to 200 hectares.
Although relatively unknown in Australia, cassava is the world’s sixth largest crop by tonnage and the fourth most important source of carbohydrate-derived calories behind wheat, maize and rice.
Globally, over 250 million tonnes of cassava root is grown annually throughout the tropics and sub-tropical regions.
The crop is noted for its exceptional yield of digestible carbohydrate (starch) and relatively low requirements for both nutrients and water, hence its reputation for high productivity even in areas of low rainfall and degraded soils.
The plant consists of tuber-like roots containing starch of very high purity, woody stems of up to three metres in height and an umbrella-like canopy of foliage. The cassava plant is a perennial which permits harvesting and planting all year round. It is typically harvested for its roots nine to ten months after planting.
In addition to being consumed as a fresh vegetable, cassava root is processed into cassava ‘chip’ and tapioca starch. Millions of tonnes of cassava chip are used annually in the production of ethanol, amino acids, citric acid and MSG, as well as livestock, fish and poultry feed. Tapioca starch is used in a vast range of applications from water treatment, food manufacture, paper making to advanced products such as bioplastics and probiotic foods.
The protein content of the foliage of the Company’s cassava varieties is typically 8 to 10 per cent on a fresh basis and around 25 to 30 per cent on a dry basis. Under intensive cropping, this equates to a potential protein yield of 40 to 50 tonne of protein per hectare per year. This presents an excellent opportunity for a future project.
The cassava plant is propagated vegetatively – rather than by seed – which ensures successive generations are direct clones of the original plants. This homogeneity reduces variability between crops which then translates into standardised farming methods and, ultimately, consistent product quality.

2:59 AM   by Bora ·   0